Sydney couple return home with surrogate baby after being stranded in Canada

A Sydney couple who spent years and hundreds of thousands to trying to find a surrogate only to be stranded in Canada with their new baby due to Covid are finally back home.

Baby Thomas is finally home in the arms of his family after being trapped overseas for the first three months of his life.

New parents Mira Abunucerah Haddad and Daniel Haddad had flown to Canada to be there for the birth of their surrogate son Thomas but international flight caps meant their flights home kept getting delayed and cancelled. They were told they couldn’t get home until mid- January.

But, after their desperate plight was recently highlighted by The Sunday Telegraph, they were contacted by the office of then premier Gladys Berejiklian, and were put on a flight the following week.

“We’re here, I still can’t believe we’re home,” said Ms Haddad, who turned 34 during hotel quarantine.

“We’ve done the two weeks in quarantine and our families have been able to finally meet Tommy and everyone is just so in love — there were lots of tears and lots of cuddles and he is getting a lot of attention, that’s for sure,” she laughed.

Mira Abunucerah Haddad, husband Daniel Haddad and their baby Thomas, who was born by surrogate in Canada. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Thomas Haddad at six weeks old.

The couple were stranded in Canada with Thomas.

The Eagle Vale teacher burst into tears when her brother picked them up to take them home.

To make it even more emotional, they stopped to visit Mr Haddad’s grandfather at the cemetery, as they were overseas for his death and missed his funeral.

“But it’s nice because Tommy’s middle name is after him, so that’s really special,” she said.

“When we got home the family started coming over and it was very emotional.

“There were a lot of tears and everyone just wanted to hug Thomas and cuddle him. It was an incredible feeling to be with everyone we love and introduce our son to them.”

Mira Abunucerah Haddad, husband Daniel Haddad and their baby Thomas, who was born by surrogate in Canada.

Baby Thomas finally gets to meet his family.

He was stuck in Canada for the first three months of his life.

The pair spent years and hundreds of thousands trying to find a surrogate, as Ms Haddad was unable to carry a child herself due to medical issues. They travelled to Canada on July 1, three weeks before the birth of Thomas.

They thought they would be home in September but instead were forced to move from hotel room to hotel room as flight after flight were cancelled.

“I’m 100 per cent pinching myself he’s here and he’s ours … it’s just amazing and I feel really blessed,” she said.

“He’s a happy, healthy baby, he sleeps and eats well and he’s such a good boy. We just love him to bits.”

She said she was blown away by the reaction from Sunday Telegraph readers, many of whom reached out to help in any way they could.

“We had so many messages, amazing random people asking to donate to a GoFundMe page, people saying they had families in Vancouver if we needed help,” she said.

“We just want to say thank you to everyone who sent us so many messages of love and support, people who read our story and felt like they had to help us in some way — we are so blessed to finally be home, and are so grateful.

“We hope no one else has to go through what we went through.”

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